. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. FiG. 3.—Flower-visiting beetles described in tiiis paper. Long horned beetles; I. Let'tiirii vitata. 2. Tvpoterui vcliitiniis. ?. ;lura t\niadensis, 4. Soldier beetle, thnNlibgrhtthu^ f>ennsvlvttt/ii'iis, 5 Blister beetles. Epifai/ta peniisvlvaNiia. 6. Tr'uhius (TlTiiih. 7. Dontifia piiiatrix. 8. Blue-flag beetle. ^/('/;fj//v'rA«j 7'7///tf(-///wj. q. Rose-chafer. Mill rodai Ivtm snb^l'iiio^in nivorous; but this does not hold true of the leaf-chafers, which are chiefly night fliers and devour such an enor- mous quantity of foliage that the fl
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. FiG. 3.—Flower-visiting beetles described in tiiis paper. Long horned beetles; I. Let'tiirii vitata. 2. Tvpoterui vcliitiniis. ?. ;lura t\niadensis, 4. Soldier beetle, thnNlibgrhtthu^ f>ennsvlvttt/ii'iis, 5 Blister beetles. Epifai/ta peniisvlvaNiia. 6. Tr'uhius (TlTiiih. 7. Dontifia piiiatrix. 8. Blue-flag beetle. ^/('/;fj//v'rA«j 7'7///tf(-///wj. q. Rose-chafer. Mill rodai Ivtm snb^l'iiio^in nivorous; but this does not hold true of the leaf-chafers, which are chiefly night fliers and devour such an enor- mous quantity of foliage that the flower food available would be wholly insuffi- cient for their wants. Some carnivor- ous beetles, like the lady-bugs, show a preference for pollen, probably because it resembles the animal food, in its chemical composition, to which they are accustomed ; while others like the wood-borers prefer nectar. There are two very remarkable genera (Gnathium and Nemognatha), which live wholly on nectar, and have a long tongue like that of a butterfly, except that it can- not be coiled up, but must be carried either in front of them or under them. They of course are able to suck nectar from tubular flowers (Fig. 2). At first. KiG. 2—Beetles with a tongue like that of a butterfly belonuini; to the genus Nemognatha. Among the more described species of beetles, only two genera (Nemmniiitha and liiiiilliiiini) have a loiii;. snckiiic tongue. thought it seems strange that other beetles have not also acquired a suc- torial tongue, since it is common to all the butterflies and moths; but probably the beetles did not begin to visit flow- ers until it was too late for them to be easily modified. Many beetles pass their entire life on a single plant species. The larv;e of Donacia piscatrix mine in the leaves and stems of the yellow water lily, while the adult beetles flourish within the floating flowers; another species of Donacia attaches its cocoons to the base of the stems of the ma
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
